India v England, 1st ODI: Preview

These are interesting times for both India and England, when it comes to One Day International cricket. While India have been bruised and exposed by arch rivals Pakistan, England is a team on the ascendancy in this format. With India's wobbly form and England's good record in ODIs recently, the series promises to be a closely-fought one.

India: The wounds from the 1-2 series loss to Pakistan will be fresh but India have a chance to redeem themselves early in the year. A glance at some numbers from the Pakistan series will explain India's problems in detail; barring MS Dhoni, who scored 203 runs in the three games, no batsman tallied 100 in the series (the next best was Suresh Raina, with 92 from 3 games). The need for stability has been recognized by the selectors and Virender Sehwag has been dropped for Cheteshwar Pujara. Pujara has celebrated his ODI call-up with a triple century in the Ranji Quarter-final against Karnataka, but he may have to wait for his turn in the national eleven. There are concerns about Gambhir's form as well, but the likes of Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh will also be eager to get back among runs in the series. It will also be interesting to see if MS Dhoni, the best batsman in the ODI team, will bat higher in the order given the top order's patchy form. The batsmen's inability to handle quality bowling on tracks with some help was exposed by Pakistan's bowling attack. England's attack, without Swann and Anderson, should be a lot easier for the out-of-form Indian batsmen to handle.

Quite surprisingly, India's bowling is less of a concern compared to the batting. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the find of the Pakistan series and consistently gave the early wickets. He was ably supported by Ishant Sharma, who has been impressive since his ODI comeback. Shami Ahmed impressed in the only game he got at Delhi, and should retain his place in the eleven.

England: England lost 0-5 the last time they played an ODI series in India, but a lot has changed since then. In the year 2012, they lost only 2 of their 17 matches and look a settled unit in this format under Alastair Cook. The team got an early jolt ahead of the series though, as they lost both the warm-up games against India A and Delhi. The batting will once again look up to captain Cook and Kevin Pietersen, while Ian Bell is the man in form with a century and a 91 in the 2 warm up games.

England's bowling is without James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann and looks slightly inexperienced on paper. However, Steven Finn will be a tough bowler to handle for India's batsmen, as he showed in the last series in 2011. The spin attack is formed by Samit Patel, Danny Briggs and James Tredwell - not the names that will cause sleepless nights for India's batsmen.

Venue: The Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot is all set to host its first international game, and the pitch promises a lot of runs.

Final word: The last time England won an ODI series in India was in 1984/85. The last time England defeated India in India, in an ODI was in 2006. History is against England, but MS Dhoni and his men will be aware that history counts for little, as Cook showed in the recently concluded Test series.

Suresh Raina has expressed his desire to bat higher up in the Indian line-up in order to have the opportunity to face more overs which would enable him to showcase his full batting prowess and potential.

India would want to end the series on a high as they take on England in the fifth and final ODI in the scenic locations of Dharamsala, which is all set to host its first ever international match. With the series having already been sealed by the hosts, a few changes are expected in both the sides for this dead rubber.

The Indians first restricted the visitors to 257 for seven and then overcame some anxious moments before overhauling the target with 15 balls to spare in a floodlit contest played in cold conditions at the PCA stadium.

I guess we are just going into the game trying to execute our skills as best as we can and if we do that and perform like we did in the first game, there is every chance we can turn them over: Tredwell.